Just days before Christmas, two custodians contracted with the City of Richmond delivered a lump of coal to their former employer, along with federal charges alleging they were fired in retaliation for their union activities due to disability discrimination.

Clarissa McGhee and Sharonda Smith filed a complaint last week with the National Labor Relations Board against Nu-Tech Janitorial Services, alleging they were fired for their involvement in efforts to unionize their co-workers. 

Smith and McGhee helped gather signatures, deliver a petition to their employers and appeared on fliers announcing workers’ desire to form a union, according to the regional chapter of the Service Employees International Union, which filed the labor complaint on their behalf. 

McGhee also filed a separate disability discrimination charge against Nu-Tech with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in her treatment due to her use of a cane. 

In November, soon after their union activities, Smith said she was told that her position had been terminated. 

“I expect I’ll get eviction notices from the hotel where my family is living because we can’t afford anything else,” Smith said during a rally outside City Hall last week where SEIU announced the charges. “I have to go to food banks, but I shouldn’t have to because I loved my job and want to come back to work.” 

McGhee, who worked at the Marshall Plaza Social Services Building, said her manager, Russell Dandridge, told her in October that she could not work at the company while using a cane. She explained that she has used a cane since 2023 due to arthritis but is able to perform her job and other normal tasks without it, relying on the cane only for long distances or her commute to work. 

McGhee said despite explaining her situation to Dandridge, she was instructed to clock out and return with a doctor’s note explaining her medical leave and need for a cane when she came back to work in mid-November after a weeklong absence. She said she has not been called back to work since submitting the note a week later. 

“I’m broke and got no one else to support me so I rely on food stamps,” McGhee said. “I feel terrible, it’s shutting me down — I just want to work again.” 

The charges against Nu-Tech come after previous complaints from employees, highlighted by SEIU, about poor working conditions, including the lack of paid leave, sick leave, holiday pay and low hourly wages. 

Nu-Tech officials had not responded to the allegations, commented on the coal delivery or answered inquiries from the Richmond Free Press before publication.